1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hand-held edger mainly used for mowing edges of grasses.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a hand-held edger comprises a main rod supported by an operator""s hand, a gear case provided at one end portion of the main rod, an output shaft horizontally protruded from the gear case, and a rotating blade supported by the output shaft. The rotating blade is driven by a power unit such as an engine mounted on the other end portion of the main rod via a gear in the gear case. A resin-made cover is attached to a flange of the gear case, for covering the rotating blade, and the wheel is supported by the cover. When edges of grasses are mowed by the hand-held edger, the main rod is operated by the operator""s hand to make the cover and the gear case suitably distant from the ground with which the wheel as a point of support is in contact. In this state, the center of rotation of the rotating blade is held in parallel with the ground and the rotating blade is driven to be rotated around the center of rotation, thereby mowing edges of grasses or the like.
However, in the conventional hand-held edger, a lower peripheral portion of the resin-made cover is worn out due to friction between the cover and the ground during the mowing operation. This is due to the fact that it is difficult to keep the cover apart from the ground while maintaining the wheel as the point of support all the time during the mowing operation. Accordingly, to prevent such wear of the cover, there has been proposed a hand-held edger in which a ground guiding member having a curved ground face made of a wear-resistant material is provided under a lower face of the gear case (Japanese Utility Model Application No. 2561848). However, in the hand-held edger having such constitution, dedicated fixing means for mounting the ground guiding member is needed and the number of parts is correspondingly increased.
The present invention addresses the above-described condition, and an object of the present invention is to provide a hand-held edger capable of preventing wear of a cover without an increase in the number of parts.
To achieve the above object, according to the present invention, there is provided a hand-held edger comprising: a main rod supported by an operator""s hand; a gear case supported at one end portion of the main rod; a rotating blade connected to a gear in the gear case; a power unit mounted to the other end portion of the main rod, for driving the rotating blade via the gear in the gear case; a resin-made cover attached to a flange of the gear case, for covering the rotating blade; and a wheel supported by the cover, wherein a protruded portion having an outer periphery coplanar with a periphery of at least a lowermost portion of the cover or diametrically outwardly protruded therefrom is formed at an outer periphery of the gear case.
In the hand-held edger, since the outer periphery of the protruded portion formed at the outer periphery of the gear case is coplanar with the periphery of at least the lowermost portion of the resin-made cover or is diametrically outwardly protruded therefrom, the outer periphery of the protruded portion of the gear case is in contact with the ground. Consequently, the wear of the cover can be suppressed without an increase in the number of parts.
It is preferable that in the hand-held edger, the protruded portion of the gear case is comprised of the flange, because the protruded portion for suppressing the wear of the cover can be formed at the gear case with a simple structure.
Preferably, the hand-held edger further comprises: an annular cover pressing plate and a fastening member, the cover is attached to the flange by means of the fastening member with the cover interposed between the flange of the gear case and the plate, and an outer periphery of the plate is coplanar with a periphery of at least a lowermost portion of the cover or is diametrically outwardly protruded therefrom.
In the hand-held edger so constituted, since the outer periphery of the cover pressing plate, as well as the outer periphery of the flange of the gear case, is coplanar with the periphery of at least the lowermost portion of the resin-made cover or is diametrically outwardly protruded therefrom, the wear of the cover can be more reliably prevented. In addition, since the annular plate is used as a fastening seat of the fastening member, a fastening force can be increased.
It is preferable that in the hand-held edger, the gear case is made of aluminum, because the wear prevention effect of the cover by the flange of the gear case can be further improved.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a hand-held edger comprising: a main rod supported by an operator""s hand; a gear case supported at one end portion of the main rod; a rotating blade connected to a gear in the gear case; a power unit mounted to the other end portion of the main rod, for driving the rotating blade via the gear in the gear case; a resin-made cover attached to the gear case, for covering the rotating blade; and a wheel supported by the cover, wherein the cover has a reinforcement plate embedded therein and an outer periphery of a portion of the reinforcement plate which corresponds to a lower portion of the cover is close to a periphery of the lower portion of the cover.
In the hand-held edger so constituted, since the outer periphery of the portion of the reinforcement plate embedded in the cover, which corresponds to the lower portion of the cover, is close to the periphery of the lower portion of the cover, the outer periphery of the reinforcement plate makes contact with the ground when the lower portion of the cover is slightly worn out by the friction between the ground and the cover. Consequently, significant wear of the cover can be avoided without an increase in the number of parts.
In is preferable that in the hand-held edger, a first insertion hole for fastening the cover and the gear case and a second insertion hole for fastening the cover and a support member of the wheel are formed in the reinforcement plate, and the cover and the gear case, and the cover and the support member of the wheel are respectively fastened by means of fastening members respectively inserted through the first and second insertion holes.
This is because in the hand-held edger so constituted, the cover can be firmly attached to the gear case and the wheel can be firmly supported by the cover by means of the reinforcement plate.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will more fully be apparent from the following detailed description with accompanying drawings.
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present of the present invention will be described with reference to drawings.